The NT Government is spending nearly $67m on a “Client Management System Alignment program … providing a 360 degree view of a child”. That is $33,333 per child, using number of children, 2007, whose families received family support casework services in 2026-17. Meanwhile social media posts reflect public frustration. Report by ERWIN CHLANDA.FULL STORY »

Franchesca Cubillo (at right), senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia, and Dr Gerard Vaughan AM (at left), former director of the National Gallery of Australia, have been announced as co-chairpersons for the reference group of the National Aboriginal Art Gallery. FULL STORY »

More than 17 million tourists visiting Northern Australia in 2014/15 and spending 10 billion dollars is a fact that could be expected to send the pulse rate up a notch or two. But despite its stirring title, “Northern Horizons – Unleashing Our Tourism Potential”, the Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia report, at least judging by its chapter six, is short on excitement, specific initiatives and detail that could further crank up the industry. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. FULL STORY »

Just 5% of Australia’s population living in the top half the nation’s land mass are producing 60% of its exports. ERWIN CHLANDA reports from a Northern Australia Development and Trade presentation this morning. FULL STORY »

Council will talk to NT Major Events about leaving Parrtjima lights on in the mall, as they are a hit with business-owners. And Deputy Mayor Matt Paterson has proposed an outdoor community space on the banks of the Todd River. KIERAN FINNANE reports. FULL STORY »

The current combined action of governments and the community controlled sector must be supported by sufficient resources to end this longstanding and damaging outbreak, says the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance. Image: Lesions of secondary syphilis on tongue. FULL STORY »

Austrian optometrist Alfred Pruckner has just made another holiday visit to The Centre, the most recent ones with his wife Erika after getting married a few years ago. Is he The Centre’s most experienced and passionate ambassador in Europe? ERWIN CHLANDA reports. FULL STORY »

What is it like to experience war? A locally developed phone app, launched at sunset atop Anzac Hill on Remembrance Day, offers some insights through personal stories from people who lived through World War 1. KIERAN FINNANE reports. FULL STORY »

What we really need is to end emissions from fossil fuels, get to zero net emissions within 12 years and go 100% renewable, writes Hayley Michener, from Repower Alice Springs. Photo by Thomas Hafeneth on Unsplash. FULL STORY »

Minster Lauren Moss has the legal power to overrule the Heritage Council (and she did), but does she have the moral right? This is one of the questions asked in a lively debate in the Alice Springs News Online that fell on deaf ears. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Photo: Coop’s Shot Tower in Melbourne – an example of how other jurisdictions celebrate their heritage. FULL STORY »

One year after the historic yes vote for same-sex marriage in Australia, and after 14 years of living together Maureen Hatton and Liz Archer will marry. For love, but also, by making it publicly known, to “make it count” after winning the hard-fought for right. KIERAN FINNANE reports.

Amended 3.47pm, 10 November 2018. Headline changed and story altered to remove reference to this wedding being a “first”. Not so, as readers have pointed out in the comments. Alice Springs News Online apologises for the error.

The Gunner Government needs to get their heads out of the clouds and take a fair and common sense approach to youth detention, write Robyn Lambley (Member for Araluen) and Terry Mills (Member for Blain).

UPDATE 2.30pm: The police union lashed out at the Department of Families over the Don Dale riot.

A dozen Aboriginal people are joining Coles supermarket as permanent part-time employees, and six as casuals, after a high-pressure, week-long training course under a scheme that assesses at the individual abilities of each applicant. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Graduates this morning: Raelene Williams (at left) and Marcus Casey-Kirkman Junior (at right).FULL STORY »

Everyone who wants to make a contribution to thinking about and working with troubled young people in our town should make the effort to see the film Backtrack Boys. One reason is that it will leave you hopeful. Another is that it will persuade you that ‘fixes’ are not quick. KIERAN FINNANE reviews. FULL STORY »

Seeing settlements such as Finke or Hermannsburg, not to mention Alice Springs after dark, and then listening to the hymns of how Australia looks after its First Nation people, gives one some contradictory feelings, to say at least, writes tourist Jakub Baranski, from Warsaw, Poland. He is pictured with Renata Baranska at The Rock.

See extensive readers’ commentary since Mr Baranski’s letter was first published. FULL STORY »

“It would be an unreasonable imposition on the owner of the building on which the ‘Coles Mural’ is painted to have it permanently protected by the Heritage Act,” says Lauren Moss (pictured). ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

UPDATE Nov 4, 12:50pm: The Heritage Council recommended the listing. See statement from chairman Wayne “Krafty” Kraft in the comment box below the report.FULL STORY »

We found more evidence of bilbies in the areas where there were cats. Perhaps that means that foxes have a greater impact on bilby numbers than cats and that a single fox is one too many, writes Peter Donohoe, of the Central Land Council’s land management section. FULL STORY »

“I no longer feel comfortable in dealing with a confused Chief Minister and angry Ministers” on the gallery project, says Cr Eli Melky. His suggestion to involve Ken Vowles has been supported by Councillors Cocking, Satour and Banks. KIERAN FINNANE reports. FULL STORY »

Blunt answer from the Chief Minister to the Member for Araluen. ERWIN CHLANDA reports.

UPDATE 6:35pm According to the Draft Daily Hansard Mr Gunner’s answer was: “Madam Speaker, it will be built at the Anzac Precinct and it will be magnificent.” To date the location had been described by the government as its “preferred” location. Today’s statement is a significant change. FULL STORY »

A clandestine process has plunged the Town Council into a state of near dysfunction, and the nine elected members, far from representing the town in an atmosphere of collaboration and openness, are in the shadows of distrust and fear of financially crippling litigation. Yet the Minister responsible for local government, Gerry McCarthy (pictured), is not available to give answers. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. PHOTO: Mr McCarthy with a public housing tenant during a media event on September 12 when he neither ruled out nor confirmed that the NT Government would compulsorily acquire Anzac Oval. FULL STORY »

Organisers hope to leverage off the high international visitation to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, planning their festival to follow hot on its heels. More than half of these visitors extend their trip in Australia, at present mostly going to Queensland; Alice Springs could capture a slice of that market, they say. KIERAN FINNANE reports. Photo: Still from a promotional video for Broken Hill’s Queen of the Desert Festival. FULL STORY »

Its conclusions amounted to a few sentences on a single page for a proposal that will put into the oval four light towers, 34.5 metres high, each at 750 Lux – 250 Lux brighter than the lights at Anzac Oval. Local residents are irate. KIERAN FINNANE reports. FULL STORY »

Kids who “should not be behind bars” are behind towers of razor wire. The battle against creeping industrialisation of rural residential land goes on. And are the Aboriginal art gallery, the Aboriginal cultural centre and the new Youth Detention Centre all going to be in the Desert Knowledge Precinct? It’s all in a days work for Namatjira MLA Chansey Paech (pictured). Report by ERWIN CHLANDA. FULL STORY »

43 people attend information sessions during the week after a lively promotion of careers for Aborigines last Saturday. Clontarf’s Aloysius Hayes (pictured) gave a hand with the BBQ. Report by ERWIN CHLANDA. FULL STORY »

Cr Eli Melky (at right) reject’s the Chief Minister’s attack on the Town Council over art gallery issues, and claims Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ken Vowles (at left) should be involved in that and other issues. FULL STORY »

Online third-party technologies are used to spoof their outbound Caller ID, says the Australian Taxation Office, whose staff are being impersonated by fraudsters. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. Listen to audio atFULL STORY »

“There are no known records of NT Government compulsory acquisition of land owned by a NT Local Government Authority,” MLA for Araluen Robyn Lambley (at left) is told. The government would need to provide “just terms compensation”, says Town Council CEO Rex Mooney (at right). ERWIN CHLANDA reports. FULL STORY »

Central Australian women, artist and subject, are the People’s Choice winner of the Portrait of a Senior Territorian. They are painter Julia Mayman, for a portrait of Daphne Puntjina, titled Proud Land. FULL STORY »

“While Margaret’s story shares an intensity of incident I’ve heard from others of her generation, never have I been gripped in literary form by such warmth and candour about what such events have meant to an individual,” writes ROD MOSS of the recently published autobiography of Margaret Heffernan. FULL STORY »

Doris Stuart and Harold Furber (pictured), two prominent Arrernte elders, let fly at the members of the Town Council last night, minutes before their sensational condemnation of the NT Government’s “preferred” Anzac Oval site for the Aboriginal art gallery. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. FULL STORY »

The latest alcohol initiative seems safe from being in conflict with the Australian Constitution’s requirement for trade between states to be “absolutely free”. However, beer sellers may gain an illegal advantage from the sharply increased cost of cheap wines from interstate under the floor price law which came into effect in the NT this month. ERWIN CHLANDA reports. FULL STORY »